


Plotting A Stack of Toast: Meta

by Indygodusk



Series: Toast-verse [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Behind the Scenes, F/M, How I brainstorm, Meta, multiple versions, my writing process, outlining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:28:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26395654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Indygodusk/pseuds/Indygodusk
Summary: Behind the scenes of my writing process. The following are my initial plot notes, outlines, and discarded scenes for “A Stack of Toast.” I started with the idea of Harry/Hermione and the Sentinel Bonding Trope and went from there. As you will see, I ended up in a different place than where I started and discarded a lot of ideas along the way. Hopefully some of you will enjoy seeing my raw work. I always like seeing how other writers conceive ideas and how their process is similar or different from mine.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Harry Potter
Series: Toast-verse [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1918411
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18





	1. First Draft Ideas

_ First Draft Ideas _

**Initial Notes and Brainstorming:**

Hermione’s magic and very senses unexpectedly change. She’s told it’s not uncommon for magicals in their early twenties but is often related to creature ancestry, so she shouldn’t talk about it in public. Due to situations beyond her control, she talks about it. The press gets involved. At this point, she learns that her new magical senses are NOT common and becomes the most coveted woman of her age. Unfortunately, some people aren’t willing to accept “no” for an answer. Harry has a lot of things to say about that. A lot.

OR

Hermione learned the hard way that no one teaches muggleborns anything useful about how being magical is different. Not at 11 when she was thrown into the deep end at Hogwarts and not at 22 when she unexpectedly went through her second magical maturation—a process everyone magical supposedly knows about from their parents but one no one talks about because some people’s magic doesn’t improve (or it does but in ways obviously related to creature ancestry) so it’s considered impolite to even allude to it, even in texts unless you get the international versions from outside Europe. Her newly enhanced senses are a mixed bag but she’s loving the way she can sense magical ley lines to super-power her spells. 

**Spirit Animals??**

Otter/Stag for Herm/Harry

BUT she suddenly has a dragon form as a patronus instead of an otter. Manages to learn her animagus form over a weekend or in a day instead of the month or more of difficult and dangerous study and turns into a dragon.

OH! Spirit animals are where the patronus and animagus spells come from maybe? Explore!

**Sentinels and Guides coming together to bond.**

_ Sentinels and Guides are known.  _

The animagus spell and patronus spell were created by a famous Sentinel-Guide pair. They come more easily to those with such ancestry. 

Sentinels: easier time finding their animagus form, sense magical leylines and instinctively position themselves on them so their spells are more powerful. Enhanced physical senses and magical senses. Better at noticing people under compulsion spells and creatures hiding using magic. Sensitive to zoning out, trapped in mind, go comatose, die. Allergic reactions with no known cause. Instinctive and strong drives to protect people in their communities, especially children. Very black and white mindsets(?). 

Rare now in Europe, especially in Britain. More common in Americas, Africa, Asia. Most of the Gifted in Britain/Europe are muggleborn and from poorer or broken homes, so loss of prestige and respect?

Female gifted don’t have squibs.

Most famous gifted in Britain was the Lady of the Lake. Famous Prophecy says that a new Lady of the Lake will awaken to stand Sentinel with a new Excalibur (hint, this means Harry) to protect Britain, cut away the corruption choking out Magic’s gifted, and bring about a new golden age of magic. Purebloods think this means she’ll destroy muggles and mudbloods. Really means she’ll make it so acceptance and education is better and caught earlier so gifts are nurtured and more Sentinels/Guides are woken up. 

Many latent Sentinels and Guides mentally reject their gifts and never come online because they are taught to reject such feelings in pureblood households. Taught that the urges and animal dreams are due to dirty creature blood coming up and that a wizard or witch must suppress and resist them at all costs.

Targeted by every Dark Lord and often during creature wars like Goblin Wars etc. Numbers small. Especially in Britain.

OR

Maybe They are the protectors of magic and people. Guides are 50/50 male/female but there are no female Sentinels except for when Lady Magic senses that the balance of magic itself is in danger and sends forth a personal champion. Extremely rare. Lucky. Coveted. The world over this only happens once every thousand years or so. Female Sentinels not well understood. Britain’s last female Sentinel was the Lady of the Lake.

OR

Hermione as Sentinel. Assume the enhanced senses are a part of being magical that no one tells muggles about. Not ONLINE, but has moments of enhanced senses.

**After the war:**

Hermione ends up isolated and lost somewhere because of work. Attacked? By creatures? By smugglers? Has to protect a group of 1st year students from Hogwarts. In the woods? Or lost on holiday? Comes Online. Part of the Sentinel gifts is seeing magical leylines. Makes her able to place herself in a place to draw more magic and super-power her spells. This is a gift thought lost to magicals. 

OR

She’s testifying in court on a routine matter for her job and because of the honesty hex off-handedly mentions how her senses are superior now that she’s gone through her second magical maturation —which no one told her about and thus she assumes most muggleborns and orphans without parental instruction don’t know about either— and that her new abilities, which don’t have a name yet that she’s found in a book, allow her to see leylines. Everything screeches to a halt. Everyone freaks out. 

She gets yanked aside by freaking out people.

Political uproar? Blood status politics? People try to get control of her to get access to her bloodline and gifts. Men try to woo her, try to force her, try to take advantage of her zoning out to forcibly bond her.

She can’t eat anything. Nothing tastes or feels right. 

**Romantic Feelings with Harry:**

Harry brings her toast in a napkin. Reminds her of the memory from 4th year. Says that she guided him all through school to help him defeat Voldemort. Wants to guide Hermione now. She says he doesn’t owe her anything. He’s offering because he wants to do it. She wants it desperately and that makes her snappish. Says the bond is sexual. Possessive. That she’s going to have to lick him all over and be in his head all the time. She’s going to be jealous of anyone who touches him. He’ll never be able to get rid of her. He can’t possibly want that. Not after what he went through. Not after he distanced himself from her after the war.

He did that because he wanted to lick her all over and she was dating Ron and then a string of other guys and never gave the slightest hint she’d ever see him in a romantic light when with every day he wanted to strip her naked and make her forget her own name.

Whoops.

Or WHAT IF she didn’t feel romantic about Harry until now? She loved him but didn’t want anything physical before now? Just didn’t think of him that way. Until he left for the year? On a training trip/internship/vacation?

**MERLIN/ARTHUR**

She descended from Merlin and thus is the black dragon/white dragon/sentinel. Everyone with the blood of Arthur is a potential guide. Arthur is the future king/returns to save the land in the myth. 

OR Hermione is descended from the  **lady of the lake** . That enchantress associated with water. When Arthur was near death in the myth, she saved him by taking him to Avalon to await a time when his people would once again need his leadership. 

In magical Britain, the Lady of the Lake bonds to and brings forth a new Arthur to lead Britain in times of need. Gives Arthur a sword. In this life, Hermione already gave Harry the sword of knowledge. The magicals think they can make her bond with someone and that person will be in charge and have the power. So they try to force her to bond with people. In reality, she chooses and no one else. Brigid (pronounced BREED) was a goddess who kept watch  over a well  (or many wells) from which a prospective king had to drink in order to earn his place on the throne.

OR Hermione is chosen as the new Lady of the Lake and Harry is the living embodiment of the sword Excalibur. She will give birth to the new Arthur OR usher in a new golden age for magicals. OR bring great blessings to the person who bonds to her. OR reintroduce great magic to the people through highly magical children. 

**PAST with DUMBLEDORE**

She is confused, disoriented, tells Dumbledore what happened and says that she needs Harry. Something inside her needs him, needs to touch him and scent him and bind them/complete them. Needs to be together. Dumbledore asks her if she’s being fair to Harry, forcing herself on him like that. Stricken, she looks at him. He gently reminds her that under the lake, Harry chose Ron and Gabrielle. He didn’t choose to save her. Obviously they are friends and he cares, but Harry didn’t choose her as his most important person. Asks her if she’s going to force Harry to do what she wants instead of what Harry needs to do. Hermione puts her arms around herself and hunches over. Says no, of course not. I’d never do that to Harry. It just hurts. It hurts so much, professor. Presses a hand to her chest as tears drip down her cheeks. He says, “My dear girl, I’m so sorry, but Harry has another fate outside of/ more important than you. You cannot have more from him but friendship. He will never bond with you. You have to accept that. For now, forgetting this is best for both of you. Repeat after me,  _ Harry is my good friend and only my friend _ .” 

Compulsion to stay platonic AND Memory charms her to forget about it (until she falls into the lake again OR it is discovered during the trial) because she will act the same either way to help Harry so it won’t help and knowing about it would distract both her and Harry from what they must do.

**KAPPAS**

The Kappa, which Newt Scamander describes as a Japanese water demon, first appears in "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." Professor Lupin teaches his third-year students about the magical creature in Defense Against the Dark Arts. "From Red Caps they moved on to Kappas, creepy water-dwellers that looked like scaly monkeys, with webbed hands itching to strangle unwitting waders in their ponds," the book reads.


	2. Scene 1?

_Scene 1?_

  1. Harry POV talking to Ron and Hermione in Hearth
    1. Sweating profusely from the two hearth fires set into the facing walls of the NW corner of the room, one red brick and one yellow brick, Harry checked the instructions in Hermione’s letter again, wondering if floo calling both her and Ron when they were all in different places really would be as simple as building an extra fireplace and connecting it to the floo network with slightly different names. Even if it did work, which it probably would because this was Hermione, he still wouldn’t be able to FEEL them the way he used to take for granted when he was a confused and ignorant Guide just coming Online. He hasn’t talked to them in over a month, not since he came Online overseas and the Healer figured out what was going on and sent him to be treated and trained at the local Sentinel/Guide Center.
    2. Ron and Hermione come on and ask how he’s doing. When he says he’s fine and feeling better than ever. Less burdened by the past. Missing them like crazy.
    3. They say great! And then start arguing.
      1. Ron says she’s gone mental
      2. Hermione quit her job at the ministry, the job she prioritized over her relationship to Ron and which caused them to break up all those years ago.
      3. She’s having nightmares and has gotten even more sensitive to food and potions. Refuses to go to a healer OR give a logical explanation
      4. Ron to Harry, “At first I thought it was PMS”, Hermione interjects and Ron speaks over her, “but it’s been more than a month and she’s gotten worse, not better, so then I wondered if she’s gone mental because she’s actually pregnant.” Hermione gasps in outrage and flings a coal from her fire into his, hitting Ron in the forehead. “Ouch, you shrew! You know that Cormac McLaggan has everyone convinced you’re madly in love with him and are going to marry him after your next promotion and the fact that you keep going to fancy parties with him and ending up with your photos in the paper together makes your excuses that he knows you’re using him for his ministry connections pretty hard to believe.” Turns to Harry. “Anyway, I thought she might admit it to you Harry when she won’t talk to me.”
        1. Harry can’t catch his breath at the pain of thinking Hermione pregnant by another man but does his best to hide it. His problem, his obsession. Not her fault or responsibility.
      5. Herm, “I’m NOT PREGNANT, you troll! Or sleeping with anyone up to and including Cormac McLaggan!” Ron scoffed. “Though if I was it wouldn't be your business unless I chose to tell you. And I talk to Harry because he actually listens to and believes me instead of jumping to conclusions. We also don’t have to worry about romance or being exes because unlike you he’s not a horndog. _Harry is my good friend and only my friend_.”
        1. How many times had Harry heard her tell people that? Too many times. _Harry is my good friend and only my friend_. It was even printed word for word in her post-war biography. He knew every intonation of that sentence, always said placidly with little to no emotion. Each time she said it felt like pouring saltwater over a never healing wound in his heart and soul. He respected her feelings, but couldn’t help but secretly wish she would change her mind. 
        2. However they were good friends and Harry believed Hermione, which meant that something else was wrong.
      6. So what is going on, Hermione? Why not go to healer? Why quit? Support you.
      7. Hermione: Having strange dreams of my otter patronus and I feel like it wants me to find my animagus form, feel like if I don’t try to do it soon I’ll lose the chance to ever find it. I keep dreaming that I am the otter and I’m searching for something extremely important. That if I fail to find it I’m going to hurt someone else dreadfully.
      8. Ron: Having an animagus form is cool, but not worth….



**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll post my three different outlines after I finish the main story so there aren't any spoilers for chapters 9+.


	3. Chapter 3

_ Plot Ideas Take 1 _

* * *

_ Scene 1: _

Summer before her 22nd birthday (4 years after the war) starts getting strange urges. Notices her magic changing and that she’s sensing/perceiving things never did before. Just after she turns 22 it gets abruptly worse. Zoning out. Seeing things. Wondering if she needs to apologize retroactively to Luna Lovegood because of all of the strange creatures she's suddenly seeing.

Shows up at the burrow in a strop. Harry out of town/country still (make her mention Harry). Tells Ron and his family/mom that things are getting weird with her instincts and magic. She just did something crazy and life-changing without planning for it. Crazy! Her body and magic is changing, she’d swear it! 

Ron say maybe it’s an early M. Uncomfortable. Hermione mad, throws up her hands, says it is not PMS or menstruation, thank you very much, you prat! Face buried in his food, Ron mumbles that she’s still mental and he’s glad they aren’t dating anymore. “Not as glad as I am!” Hermione swats his shoulder and steals a piece of toast from his plate. Everything else tastes weird now.

Molly, patently uncomfortable too, says he means an  early magical maturation . Normal magicals don’t have a second magical maturation until their 50s or so, but, well,  people with creature blood sometimes experience an earlier maturation in their 20s. It’s not something you want people knowing about though. Even people with no prejudice against muggleborns can have prejudices against people with creature blood, especially those with powerful magical gifts. You don’t talk about it in polite society. And with that Molly considered the subject closed. Asks what big thing she just did that had her in a strop.

Hermione says she’s agreed to  teach Defense against the dark arts at Hogwarts. The post is supposedly no longer cursed since Voldemort died, but the instructor had an accident (something silly, like falling on the moving staircase, bonking her head, and deciding she needs to move to Australia immediately and compose a new musical saga for the ages based on what she’s heard about what happened at Hogwarts during the war on the didgeridoo) just a month into the term. Headmaster McGonagall is desperate. 

Ron, “So she asked you to help?” 

“No, and that’s the strange thing. My internship just ended and I went to talk to McGonagall for her advice and for a letter of rec for the job I was going to apply for in the Ministry. She told me her problems during tea, I looked out the window and saw all these helpless little firsties on the lawn struggling with teh simplest of spells and they looked so helpless. They’re just little kids! I knew I could protect them and something took over my mouth and suddenly I was volunteering to teach the class. McGonagall was just as shocked as I was but she jumped at the chance to solve her problem and whipped out the contract before I could change my mind and regain my sanity. I start first thing on Monday.”

_ Scene 2: _

Hermine talking to Harry on an international Floo call. We find out he’s been travelling a lot the last few years. She tells him she broke up with her latest bf (perhaps admit that she’s never felt that jolt of lust for a man. Maybe it's shallow or strange, but none of them taste or smell right. Ron was the closest to smelling right but that could’ve just been because he smelled like Harry and Hermione most of the time because of proximity. Maybe something is wrong with her), Ron’s still dating Rose Summerfield so good for them. Mentions her job teaching is going well (is it a few months later?) and weird magical maturation that is censored from british books and barely mentioned in the international ones she’s read so far, and what she’s experienced isn’t matched in any of them. 

Harry asks if the care packages he’s sending have helped. If any of the food is working. She tells him yes, that the special meals he created for her are the only thing she can stomach it feels like. The unscented personal potions he sent her are also helping with the rashes, though they still pop up occasionally. He’s the only one taking her seriously. The Healer she went to still thinks it's all in her head, a mental condition caused by stress. The second healer she went to said it could be something to do with being muggleborn that normal magicals don’t have to deal with. The third got weird about the potential creature blood issue and referred her to a magical veterinarian. She stopped going to healers after that. Only Harry believes her unconditionally.

Asks when Harry is coming back. Says she needs him here. In person where she can sense him. See with eyes, hear with ears, touch with skin, smell, feel his magic vibrating across her skin. Plaintive. Honest. Trying not to sound desperate. 

“Then I’m there.” Harry answers. Simple. “As soon as I finish this job for the ICW I’ll put in my notice and move back to Britain. It shouldn’t take more than a week or two.”

Hermione excited, ecstatic, but tells him he doesn’t have to. She doesn’t want him to uproot his life just because she misses him and is feeling wretched. He has a very important job working for the leadership and is being groomed to be a leader himself. People listen to him there and he’s making changes. She can read between the lines.

Harry says he was only out there because he was waiting for Hermione to need him enough to come back. He says it like a joke but his eyes are dead serious. Intent. 

Hermione’s alarm chimes saying it is time for class. They say goodbye.

_ Scene 3: _

Hermione takes a class to the Forbidden Forest for a lesson, still thinking of Harry and that look in his eyes, trying not to wonder if he’d taste more right than all the other men she’s kissed, and they encounter a problem. An escaped Dementor that she kills with her patronus? Other creature? She orders the students to flee back to school and turns to defend them. She turns into a dragon and kills the monster with her breath weapon water? Or uses a water spell. Makes her patronus into a corporeal water creature of water from the heart of a leyline. The creature supposedly can’t be killed. Hermione knew that so imbued her water with wild magic that she pulled from the leyline under her feet that she’d sensed and deliberately positioned herself on. Made it go poof.

OR she struggles until they both fall into the water and then she defeats it because the very water fought on her side without a verbalized spell. Why? How? She not know either until asked on honesty hex and wonders out loud if it is because she’s the lady of the lake. 

When she got back to the castle the aurors had come but she’d already taken care of it. The Ministry was embarrassed that the creature escaped so they barely questioned her. OR the auror was so in awe of her fame that he stuttered and didn’t ask many questions. Seemed dazed. She told them they encountered it, the kids ran, she used magic to take it out. He didn’t ask more. Just thanked her and kept staring. She asked if he was done. He tries to kiss her. She avoids, hexes him, and storms off for a shower and privacy.

Since the creature escaped from the ministry, she was called on to testify later. 

_ Scene 4: _

Harry coming home today but she has to testify at the stupid ministry inquiry first before going to meet him. Boo.

Sits in honesty chair. Says what happened. Accidentally admits to an early magical maturation. Gets asked more, admits to new senses and affinity for water. Everyone goes crazy. The member of the press who was falling asleep jumps up and takes a ton of pictures. Someone exclaims that it’s impossible. She can’t be the new Sentinel Lady of the Lake! 

Sees Harry at the back of the room. Almost zones out, all her senses reaching for him, which means she’s not paying attention when she gets hustled off by Minister of Magic, who is older and married but who starts flirting with her and getting handsy. She horrified. Demands to know what is going on. Is told the legend.

Cormac McLaggen stops her in the halls, says he’s got the most arthurian blood out of anyone and that she should be his bondmate. She says no. He says you don’t have a choice. You have to bond to someone if you don’t want to go crazy and that someone is going to be me. Crowds her. She knees him in the balls and hexes him on the ground. Steps over him and marches away.

Leaves the building to go find Harry. Someone grabs her arm, stuns her, and apparates away.

_ Scene 5: _

Malfoy Manor. She wakes up to Narcissa Malfoy. Horrified. She’s crazy. Tells her not to worry, she didn’t grab her to hurt her. She grabbed her for her son. She may be a mudblood but she’s also the Sentinel Lady and she’s going to make the Malfoys into the new leaders of Britain. How? She just has to bond with her Draco. Calls a House Elf. Tells elf to get Hermione dressed for Draco. Leaves.

House Elf uses magic to change her into a green silk negligee. Ankle-length but open at the sides with criss-crossing cords. It’s beautiful, comfortable, sexy but classy, and the same color as Harry’s eyes. She’d love it if she wasn’t tied to a wall and about to be forcibly bonded to Draco Malfoy. Elf refuses to untie her or let her go. Leaves.

Hermione hears Draco coming down the hall arguing with his mom. The door opens, they come in, Draco’s mouth drops open and his eyes go wide. His mom explains as if it is perfectly reasonable. Draco’s face shutters. He turns to his mom and pretends to go along. Says if he’s going to do this he can’t have his mom as a witness. mom agrees, reminds them both of the anti-apparition wards, and leaves.

Hermione is going to fight Draco tooth and nail when he saunters over and tells her that while the hate-sex might be amazing he doesn’t force women and didn’t trust her not to bite off his dick at the first chance. Besides, she’s not his type. He wants peace in his bedroom, not conflict. He got his fill of that as a teen.

What does that mean? He’s going to help her escape. How? Old dark magic families all use the same spell to put up anti-apparition wards, one patented by a black ancestor. Since they don’t trust each other and need an escape route, there’s always a balcony on the second floor in the NE corner that isn’t covered by the spell. They’re going to walk to Draco’s bedroom, Hermione’s going to go along as if he’s seducing her, and when they get to the second floor she’s going to run to the balcony to try and escape and figure out she can apparate away. How unfortunate for Draco. He holds up her wand he’d taken from his mom. Hermione grudgingly agrees. He warns her to not look suspicious, especially if his parents come looking.

In the hall they run into a servant. Hermione grabs Draco by the robes, hauls him in, and kisses him. After a startled moment he dips her and kisses her silly. The servant leaves. Draco mocks that it was just a house elf, not his parents. Praises her kissing technique though, says he regrets loosing out on the hate sex more now. She gives him a 8 on technique but a 4 on taste, does admit he kisses better than any of her previous bfs. Draco preens and asks, “Even Potter?” Hermione snaps back, “I’ve never kissed Harry. We’re just friends!” Draco skeptical. Says he’s seen the way Potter watches her arse when she’s not looking. “He did not! Did he?”

They get to the balcony, look both ways, Draco hands her the wand, steps back, says he’d appreciate it if she didn’t have his mother arrested. And turns and leaves. 

She apparates away to her bedroom and straight into the arms of Harry.

_ Scene 6: _

Harry grabs her, finds her still in the green silk negligee. Swallows hard. Says that green is his new favorite color.

Talk. 

He admits to wanting her for years. First realized he loved her as more than a friend in 4th year when she met him in the common room with a stack of toast in a napkin and believed him about what happened with the goblet of fire. But she was determined to never shift their relationship to romantic and ignored all his hints, so he tried to let it go and accept what he had. He wanted to take care of her but she was all about giving, not receiving. He feels like they’re meant to be together, he’s just been waiting for her to catch up and realize it too. His feelings not her responsibility. It got too hard watching her date other men, so he took off to work abroad for a while and test if absence made the heart grow fonder.

Harry loves her.

Hermione worried. What if he didn’t taste right? What if the magic of the lady of the lake didn’t choose him for her guide and bondmate? 

Harry look her in the eye and says, It will. 

What if you hate being in the spotlight again and expected to save everyone again? This will make you a king!

Shrugs. I didn’t plan on being the King but I’m not gonna lie and say having the power to change things around here wouldn’t feel good. Instead of being at their mercy they’d be at mine. Unlike the corrupt people running this place for so many years, I know how to be merciful… and how to be just. You are my Sentinel and I’m your Guide. I can feel it.

Kiss. Fireworks. Bam!

_ Scene 7: (MAYBE?) _

Epilogue?

Hermione still teaching through the end of the year and sits in on meetings with Harry and be his advisor. Harry shaking things up at the Ministry and finds himself enjoying being in charge and having the deciding vote in Wizengamot sessions. 

Meh.

**Eat toast together**


	4. Chapter 4

_ Plot Ideas Take 2 _

* * *

_ Scene 1:  _

Hermione dreaming or experiencing 4th year Triwizard tournament. Waiting for Harry with her stack of toast and telling him she believes him unequivocally. Then jump to being in the headmaster’s office with Ron, getting told they were being used as bait for champions but would be perfectly safe. Not feel a thing until woke up afterwards. Waking up under the water trapped in her own body. Can’t move. Can’t escape. Panic. Reaching for something and having a strange vision of an otter leading a ghost of a woman to her, the woman putting an arm around her, hug, kiss forehead or something, feeling a bubble pop, but not the air bubble, something else. Can’t open eyes and see anything but the glowing woman and otter but can hear/smell/feel the water and mermish and what’s going on. Comforted by the lady in the lake but scared. Harry comes. She latches onto and memorizes his heartbeat. He doesn’t save her. What’s he waiting for? Krum comes and saves her. Takes her away. She feels betrayed, knows it is irrational. Talks herself down. From that moment on she can always hear and find his heartbeat if he’s in the same building. Never talks about it.

OR

Scene 1: 

4th year memory with Harry and Toast. Later Dumbledore, the lake, his office.

Scene 2: 

Chatting with Harry over breakfast on the international floo. He working abroad as a Guide, trained and employed by the international organization. He makes a hesitant romantic overture, she doesn’t get it, maybe changes subject, responds literally, clueless. He sighs and lets it go. She’s feeling off again, that strange ailment that comes and goes. Rashes, headache, losing time zoning out. Also having nightmares and constant feeling like she’s missing something. Screwed up at work and got fired? She still refuses to go to a healer over it. Harry upset. Says she wouldn’t let him get away with that. She doesn’t answer. He frowns, sighs, asks if the things he sent have helped. She says yes, talks about that instead but doesn’t admit that she kept the wrapping paper because the smell of him on it seems to help as much as everything else.

Scene 3: 

Hermione goes to visit McGonagall for advice/ letter of rec / tea. Decides to walk. Looks at students and feels like they look so young and innocent. Even the older ones. Hasn’t been that innocent since before the troll in 1st year, maybe not even then. Sees a creature (kappa?) attack students and dragging them into lake. Runs forward to help. Goes feral. Destroys creature using water of the lake and no known verbal spell. Knocked out. Wakes up, one of the kids who almost drowned is from dark family, maybe relative of death eater and parents are claiming that she attacked the kid or is to blame. She has to testify in trial.

Scene 4: 

Trial, tries to talk about what happened and how she was in the lake in 4th year. Gets stuck. Goes vague. Judge says he sees nothing that puts her at fault and says she seems innocent, but also says that her responses under the hex when talking about her past are stereotypical for a memory charm and insists she sees a healer to check at the recess before he will deliver his final judgement.

Scene 5: 

Healer checks, says she has both old charm and compulsions along with old damage from war wounds/curses. The magic seems to be dissolving on its own, only needs a little help to unravel completely. She’s lucky. The memory was hidden, caster wasn’t able to completely destroy it despite the skill of the casting that went into it. Removes it.

Hermione distraught. Confused. Betrayed, hurt, and angry.

Lawyer for the other side insists she be cross examined again in case the memory was actually of her plotting to harm the client. Healer objects but Hermione agrees to do it because she’s got nothing to hide and just wants this over with.

Scene 6: 

Back in courtroom they ask her about attacking client, she says no, protecting them. Lawyer asks why she run forward instead of going for help. Say because there wasn’t time to get help and because couldn’t help herself. Why? Compelled to help a child in danger. Why? Because she’s been wakened as the Lady of the Lake and compelled to protect Britain’s magical children. You’re a female Sentinel? Yes. Why didn’t you tell anyone? I did. I told Headmaster Albus Dumbledore and he suppressed my memory and gave me a compulsion to not claim my Guide and bondmate. Uproar. Judge shouts it down. She having trouble with her senses now that she knows she’s a Sentinel and has senses unlocked. Proclaims her innocent. Closes the trial.

Scene 7: 

Minister of Magic comes bustling down, corners her, tells her he’s an unbonded Guide. Repeats the legend. She escapes. 

Cornered by Cormac McLaggan next. He tries to manipulate her into a zone so he can “take care of” her. She hexes him. 

Escapes out a side door. Drops to knees, senses fluctuating. Approached by a woman. Not a guide. The woman says something like, You poor thing. Relaxes and asks for help as she can’t see. Woman says she will help her. Then woman grabs her arm and apparates her away. Hermione zones out as senses go crazy. 

Scene 8: 

Malfoy Manor

Scene 9: 

Finds Harry. Bonds. Toast.


	5. Chapter 5

_ Plot Ideas Take 3 _

  1. Harry packing for a trip. 
    1. Hermione berates him for waiting until the last minute to pack, 
    2. He asks her to make him a stack of toast for the trip since he doesn’t have time to eat.
    3. She says he’s lucky she broke up with her boyfriend last night and thus cancelled their normal brunch date so she could rush over to make him breakfast and help him pack.
    4. wraps in a napkin, puts a stasis charm on it so it will stay warm.
    5. Harry asks why she broke up? Asked if he needed to detour to kick the guy’s arse for being a git or something.
    6. She waves her hand. BF got too demanding and jealous of the fact she speaks to Harry every day. More often than to bfm who she sees a few times a week and has to fit into work schedule. They argued, he demanded she tell him who was more important, bf or Harry. Stops talking to wrap up toast in napkin.
    7. “And?” Harry prompted impatiently.
    8. Hermione huffed. Of course she picked Harry. You have to know you’re the most important person in my life. Otherwise I’m going to have to question your intelligence.
    9. Harry going to Japan, 1 month of extreme winter sports, yuki matsuri with giant ice castles, hiking Mt. Fuji, exploring new creatures and magical cultures, visiting the famous Kamiya Dojo and attached Sentinel and Guide Center. Wonders if he’ll get a chance to meet a magical sentinel or guide. Or see the magical fountain of the reverse blade, said to bring gifts online and increase magical power in those who drink..
    10. Hermione chimes in that since the gifted are so instinctively protective of their territory they don’t travel much, which means he has a good chance. She’s jealous. They must be fascinating to talk to, especially since they are very secretive and don’t write a lot about their abilities in books. Japan has a robust gifted population, unlike Britain. Haven’t had more than a handful of bonded pairs at any one time in centuries since we lost the location of the Lady’s fountain, which was said to awaken potential gifts. Never specify if “lady” refers to the lady of the lake in mythology or to Lady Magic herself. Maybe both. Those few Sentinels and Guilds that wake up without the fountain always targeted by Dark Lords and killed first thing. Not sure if Britain has any right now after Grindelwald and Voldemort. Cormac might know. The McLaggan family does seem to know everyone. I should see if he can introduce me to someone. I’d love to talk to a Sentinel.
    11. Harry says something scathing about Cormac, like how he’s probably going to angle to take the place of her now ex-boyfriend. Takes off his shirt and puts it in his trunk because wants to wear that one when he first gets to Japan. Walks around without shirt as he continues to pack. He’s talking about what he’s going to be doing/seeing, but she’s not listening, too distracted. 
    12. Harry pauses, gives her a knowing look, and lips quirk. Reaches up onto a high shelf for something instead of fetching it using magic and her mouth goes dry. 
    13. Harry looks down at the item in his hands (or out window), back to her, and says, “Speaking of the most important person in my life, you have to know its you too. It’s been you since I was 14.” Deep breath. “You know, it’s not too late. You could come with me to Japan. As my girlfriend. Who I’ve been in love with for years.” Voice cracks. “Or as my wife. Whatever you want to be to me.”
    14. His voice is hazy, hard to hear through the ringing in her ears. Hermione flashes to a memory of talking to Dumbledore under the bleachers after Viktor Krum rescued her from the Lake during the second task of the Tri-wizard tournament. His eyes are piercing. Sad but sharp and hard. 
    15. Blinks, realizes Harry is watching her from the corner of his eye and not breathing, waiting for a response to whatever he said. Something about his travels? and being good friends? “Sorry, I phased out for a moment and didn’t catch all that. I am your good friend, but I can’t just take off from work when I’m in the middle of a project. Besides, I’m pretty sure I’m about to get that promotion I’ve been killing myself to get for the last few years. Thanks though. Just don’t stay away too long or I’ll have to send a howler.” She forced a laugh.
    16. Shoulders tight, Harry blows out his breath, reaches out, and yanks on a random shirt. Tosses last few things carelessly into truck, closes it, shrinks it, tucks into pocket.
  2. 3 weeks later: her nightmares start. First one she wakes up reaching for someone who needs her, tears and sobbing. Then Every night, sometimes multiple times a night. She’s trapped underwater and no one can hear her scream. She’s trapped under the stands of the 2nd task of the triwizard tournament and the crowd is too noisy to hear her pleas. She’s trapped in a cell in her mind with only the gap under the door to see the world out of. She’s trapped and someone is asking her for help, she’s asking someone else for help, SHE NEEDS HELP. 
    1. And she desperately wants and needs Harry but he’s having fun in Japan and will be back in 1 week. She can wait that long. She makes a detailed plan of what to do each day to distract herself from counting the hours until he’s home and tries to make herself so tired she’ll sleep through the nightmares.
    2. Her plan failed to account for a change in plan. Letter arrives from Japan. Harry has come Online as a Guide and will be staying at the magical SG enclave with the Kamiya family to train for foreseeable future.
  3. 3 months later: Hermione in McGonnagall’s office at Hogwarts. Was offered a promotion and quit her job instead. Something made her come here. Hopes it okay. Has been separated from Harry for longest time ever in her life (4 months). Strange dreams, nothing tastes or feels right, maybe just need a change. Woke up from dream of being underwater like in triwizard tournament, though of course she wasn’t awake under the water so just her imagination, and of getting shouted at by someone can’t quite understand who needs her help, and Feels like she’s going down the wrong path at the ministry. Isn’t helping people there the way she though she would be.
    1. Eating toast and tea during a breakfast meeting. 
    2. Hermione moves to sit in different spot. McG askes why. H not know. M say that’s the most magically powerful spot in the office and you placed your chair right on the leyline node. Sure it not on purpose? H say no.
    3. Ask for advice on finding animagus form? y/n
    4. Talk about Harry coming Online as a Guide while on a vacation and getting stuck in other country training for months on end
      1. McGonnagall mention ancestors were Sentinels and how her family is known for being good at animagus form because of it
      2. Quote about Harry being good friend
    5. Hermione look out window, ask why so many kids out. Look so young and innocent! No looking over shoulder or huddling in small groups. Has urge to protect that innocence. 
      1. Defense teacher quit yesterday. Scrambling for replacement. Everyone else’s docket is full so just handed out essays to do and let them free. McGonnagall has a stack of recruitment letters to send out after this meeting.
    6. Hermione is either asked or volunteers to teach the class
  4. Talk to Harry [maybe do Harry’s POV, maybe not]
    1. Says teaching for 1 month and going well. Misses Harry like a missing limb. 
    2. Talks about Teaching Class, students impressed or difficult by turns. Challenge her. She shows her scars? Mentions her credentials? 
      1. Asked about dating Potter. Quote about Harry being good friend
      2. With older kids say she’s going to teach them the patronus charm, protective, light, powerful, versatile. Hard but worthwhile. Builds on other spells.
      3. Has Slytherin in her class who dislikes her
      4. Gets asked about war scars. Shows them. Not all from magic.
    3. He asks her to bond with him in a rush. Knows she’s not a sentinel but he loves her and after talking to his teachers thinks he can balance his empathic senses on her. That he’s unconsciously been doing so for years. If she’s willing to be more than friends.
    4. Hermione frozen. 
    5. Mention teaching patronus charm. Working on animagus form with McGonnagall and making faster than usual progress. Harry lets her pretend he didn’t say anything. Tells her he is proud, say she is a genius after all. Maybe she can teach him when she’s done. They are good friends after all. Best friends. Right? [meh]
    6. Of course! She assures. Says quote.
    7. He finally coaxed his spirit animal to the physical world. He’s a stag just like his patronus. Says that’s normal. Surprised, “Oh, he wants to say hello to you.” Flames instead of coals form a stag that turns into smoke, his nose reaches out to her and she reaches back but he disappears before she can touch. Hurts, tears up, excuses it as smoke in her eyes.
    8. He say she looking rough. Needs to take better care of herself. Asks if the nightmares and headaches have gotten any better.
    9. Before she can answer she looks out the window, gasps, and swears, leaning forward. “Merlin preserve us, a student just got pulled into the water by what looks like a kappa. I have to go.”
  5. Hermione Saves Student from a Kappa. 
    1. On the edge of where the forest meets the great lake, just inside. There are 2 kappas though, surprise! Hermione saves one kid from being strangled, throws him out onto shore where he breaks arm. (Parents sue. Say as Defense teacher she to blame for allowing kappa to be around and not noticing it. Also say she broke kid’s arm on purpose.)
    2. Seeing kid getting hurt makes something in her snap. Protective rage like she’s never felt except maybe around Harry.
    3. Being strangled. Glowing otter appears that is hers, but she didn’t summon patronus. Brings back Water woman/ lady of the lake (seems familiar). Lady hands her a sword formed out of water or ice and chops kappa into parts. Says save yourself and then save me. Hermione was strangled and has marks on throat, which is swollen so she can only whisper and talk raspily.
    4. Gets out of water, soaked. World looks different. Can feel that there is something wrong nearby. Smells wrong. Light wrong. Otter leads her a bit deeper into forest but still near lake. Kids follow. Find puddle/small pool of black, opaque, putrid water. Poisoned leyline underneath. Her otter disappears. 
      1. Kids ask how she knows. She says she can sense it, can’t they? It’s so clear. Normal magicals can’t. Sentinels can, but she’s not one….
    5. Asks kids how many have mastered patronus charm. Those who don’t raise hands sent to go get teachers to help. Hermione leads the rest in casting patronus at the dark area. The animals attack and start clearing it away. Teachers show up to help. 
    6. Filth pushed back to reveal a wooden circle banded with rusted iron and carved with arithmancy runes. Progress halts until Hermione instinctively shifts into her otter form for first time and physically attacks the wood with her claws, scratching away at the runes until the magic breaks and the wood disintegrates into rotting pieces. 
    7. Fountain bursts high into air, raining clear sweet water. Filth flushed away, leaving a stream that joins the lake. Teens look up and cheer. Drink the water falling from the spurting fountain. After a minute the water calms down to only as tall as a student instead of as tall as the trees.
    8. McGonnagal finds a stone carved plaque at the base of the new fountain and exclaims that this is the long-lost pool called The Lady’s Gift, (Hermione rasps, like in Hogwarts a History!?) Yes, the very same! It was said that if you drank of the fountain and were judged worthy by Lady Magic, she would awaken Sentinel and Guide gifts to help you protect the land and bless you and your children with increased magical strength, consequently also preventing squibs for at least three generations. Muggles and Magicals wanting to be kings would also sometimes find their way to the fountain and drink to be judged worthy to rule and receive their own gifts. What a treasure for Hogwarts and Magical Britain!
    9. Vision wavers as energy gives out. Hermione has a crippling headache, throat hurts. Passes out. 
  6. Wakes up to find herself being sued by parent of student. Has to go to ministry for official interview by aurors to defend herself. McGonnagal infuriated. Mostly recovered with potions etc.
    1. Photo of her unconscious and bloody makes the international press. 
    2. [Don’t Show this or make just a paragraph to save on wordcount] Harry worried, can’t get ahold of anyone to ask about Hermione. Then gets paper with picture of her unconscious, bleeding, with red fingermarks on her throat. Grabs his stuff and buys a ticket back to Britain. In India, finds out about the memory charm. Radio or newspaper? Then hears followup that Ms. Granger disappeared from the Ministry after that and didn’t return to her flat or to job at Hogwarts. Is presumed missing and the public is asked to keep an eye out and report if they see her in case she’s zoning out and needs special help. Harry breaks something. Goes looking for someone to bribe to get him to Britain faster.
    3. Goes to interview, but because of the famous nature of the lady’s fountain, the private interview has been moved into a large room with projection pensieve. Portraits of former Chief Warlocks of Wizagamot line the walls.
    4. Agrees to submit memory of events. Starts with seeing kid out window and running out of international floo call to harry.
    5. Memory is impressive. However, parts of what happened in the water are hazy/ unclear.
    6. Tries to answer questions, but when asked about what happened when she went into the lake, got hazy. Can’t answer question. Then later doesn’t remember being asked the question. Repeatedly.
    7. Checked for memory charms or compulsion. Find both. 
    8. Other family say she did it to herself to get out of trouble and hide her guilt. 
    9. Hermione gives her permission to remove the spells and submit the memories to the pensieve to prove her innocence. Lawyer/judge warns that because the memories are returned in a court of law, she will have to submit them before evaluating them herself. Can’t leave and do it privately because if guilty, could further corrupt/hide the memories until irretrievable.
    10. Does it. Puts memories in. Everyone watches as Dumbledore binds her gift, sets the compulsion, and memory charms her. Says the quote and makes her repeat it.
    11. Hermione picks up the chair she was sitting in and slams it into the portrait of Dumbledore on the wall. He tried to duck out of view, kicked back into his portrait by portrait next door, former Chief Warlock Fleamont Potter (harry’s granddad). The chair breaks. She screams and takes out her wand and attacks the portrait over and over. Someone tells her the portraits are protected with strong spells and almost indestructible. She moves to where she senses a ley line and keeps casting until the frame breaks and it cracks and falls off of the wall. People impressed and shocked.
    12. Someone sits her down, gives her water. The case is dismissed against her. Judge apologizes for what was done to her. Says that not only is the evidence clear that you are innocent of all charges but you are also Britain’s first Alpha Sentinel in centuries, woken by the Lady of the Lake herself. You are a gift and have in the past and will continue in the future to do great things for magical Britain.
  7. She’s in shock. Hustled out of the room by Minister. He says people will try to take advantage of her in her vulnerable state. Mentions that there’s prestige in being married to an Alpha Sentinel, that she should expect to be inundated with marriage offers from the heirs of the sacred twenty-eight.
    1. But I need my Guide, she protests.
    2. “Marriage need not preclude you taking a Guide, as long as the relationship remained platonic, of course, so as not to muddy the succession and bloodlines. You need not even get married if you’d prefer a less formal arrangement.” Tries to touch her arm/shoulder. She avoids. Gets out of there.
    3. Cornered by Cormac, who talking to mom but leaves her to run after H, wants her to marry him. She refuses. Pushes him out of the lift and lets the doors close on his face. He threatens her/ promises to make her change her mind.
    4. Everything is too much. Senses going crazy. Needs to rest. Escapes into the small park next to the ministry building. Sits on a bench. Puts her head in her hands. 
    5. A woman asks if she’s alright. Sounds kind. Hermione lets the woman put an arm around her shoulders. Proves a mistake as her wand is lifted from her limp hand and she feels the stretched sensation of side-along apparation. The sensation is too much. Passes out.
  8. Harry finds out about the memory charm.
    1. Was so groggy and sick after jumping to Greece that he accidentally took a portkey back into Asia and ended up passed out in Tashkent, Uzbekistan overnight. Mediwitch let him sleep for twelve hours and refused to release him until he’d eaten a good breakfast. Harry angry at himself and behind. 
    2. Gets portkey to Prague, Czech Republic, Leaves office, changes clothes, goes back in and buys International portkey to Amsterdam and from there to London.
    3. Hears on radio that Professor Hermione Granger, one of the golden trio who defeated Dark Lord Voldemort five years ago, disappeared from the Ministry after that and didn’t return to her flat or to job at Hogwarts. Is presumed missing and the public is asked to keep an eye out and report if they see her in case she’s zoning out and needs special help. Harry breaks something. Goes looking for someone to bribe to get him to Britain faster.
  9. Harry arrives in Britain. Goes searching for Hermione. Interrogates people using empathy/Guide gifts. Not worried about being nice. Starts visiting people’s homes and not taking no for an answer. Searched the McLaggan residence, DOM? 
    1. Went to talk to Goyle, who barricaded himself in his house with strong generational wards on the doors. Harry breaks wards. Aurors called by neighbors. They arrive in time to see Harry shaking Goyle and demanding to know where “she” was. Goyle looks at his house and then tries to run in the opposite direction. Harry casts a spell that breaks the wall and reveals a secret room full of illegal potions ingredients and black market stuff. The girl with him is making the potions. She and Goyle were arrested.
  10. Hermione wakes up in Malfoy Manor. Told she slept for 24 hours. Narcissa says she probably needed the sleep. Hopes she feels better.
    1. “Why do you care?” Hermione asked.
    2. “Because you’re going to be my daughter in law and mother of my grandchildren, restoring my family’s reputation and magical power.”
    3. Gets Draco. Hears his talking to him mother about needing to go and check on his friends to make sure they didn’t do anything stupid like kidnap Granger because Potter is on a Rampage and already destroyed the ancestral wards on someone’s estate in looking for her. Exposing criminal activity in the process and got Goyle arrested, but not find Granger. Doesn’t want Potter coming here in a strop.
    4. Escape.
  11. Arrives at her old cottage,
    1. Approaching the door, she sees Cormac McLaggan hanging upside down above the prongs of Harry’s corporeal stag in her front lawn. Harry’s got a wand in his face and is threatening torture or to put out his eye on the antlers or have Hartford disembowel him unless he says where Hermione is. Says he can use his Guide gifts to rip Cormac’s mind to shreds and give him nightmares for the rest of his life. Cormac says not seen her since day before in ministry. Came over to try and find her to change her mind again about their relationship. That’s all.
    2. Hermione calls out. Harry releases Cormac, who apparates away, and sweeps her up in his arms. So glad she’s safe. Pulls back. Are you okay? Really? Nod.
    3. Talk. Kiss.
    4. Hermione moves them a few steps to the side until they’re in the center of a leyline node. Can’t help it.
    5. Harry pull back from her, asks her if she was avoiding hurting his feelings in the past by ignoring all of the times he tried to ask her out or if the spells she was under kept her from answering. 
    6. She shocked and angry all over again. Doesn’t remember him ever asking her out. Ever.
    7. So that means you don’t remember the awkward marriage proposal either? he asks again. 
    8. Her mouth drops open.
    9. Harry steps forward, looks in eyes, Says he loves her. If marriage is too much then we could try going out. Dating. Go out with me. Please be my girlfriend.
    10. She says she’ll go out with him if he wants but she’d rather jump past all that and bond to him Sentinel to Guide, enter into a magical marriage, and never sleep without him by her side for the rest of her life.
    11. Kiss, Harry starts to get heat it up, Hermione yawns in his face. Blush, apologize, says she hasn’t slept well since he left Britain. Harry yawns too, laughs, says he hasn’t slept well either.
    12. She says, lets go inside, send a note to people to let them know I’m fine, and then sleep together.
    13. He nods, follows to door. Adds that they can pledge their troth over a stack of toast at breakfast, and, with the extra energy, “sleep together” and bond as Sentinel and Guide.
    14. Good plan, kiss, go inside, but I’ve always wanted to ask, what’s with your obsession with us eating stacks of toast?
    15. He mentions memory. Says the immense amount of relief he felt at having her accept his story without question made him realize that he loved her. That he would always love her, and that he knew he could trust her with everything and she would never let him down. As he said the words, Harry lowered his mental and magical shields. I knew I wanted to stay with you forever. Half-smile. Say I’ll wait for however long you want. I’ll respect whatever you choose, but just to be clear. I want everything with you. Forever. Says words to magical marriage ceremony. Magic starts dancing on his skin, pulled from the node.
    16. Hermione stepped forward and engulfed him in a hug, simultaneously surrounding his mind and magic with her own. “I feel that way too. I want that too.” And something snapped into place. Magical marriage bond. 
    17. “Oh,” he leaned back and exhaled shakily.
    18. “Huh,” she tilted her head. “Not that I mind, but I was led to believe that forming marriage bonds were trickier than that.”
    19. “Me too.” Slow smile. “Wife.”
    20. She leaned forward, licks his bottom lip, says maybe she’s not too tired after all. What do you say to letting me glut my senses on your body and cement that Sentinel-Guide bond now. Runs her nose along his neck, inhaling his scent, eyes heavy lidded. “Please.” Slides fingers up inside his shirt. “Husband.”
    21. “And here I thought I’d have to take off my shirt before you’d start petting me.”
    22. “Oh Harry, I haven’t started anything. This is starting.” And with that, she ripped off his shirt, pulled her robes over her head to drop onto the floor, and jumped him, riding his body to the floor with Harry’s enthusiastic participation.
    23. Despite all their earlier talk, there was no sleeping that night.
    24. OR... No implied sex. Eat food, cuddle, talk of future. Happy happy, joy joy. END.




End file.
